Montag A & Associates Inc. Reduces Stake in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Montag A & Associates Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 59.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 89 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $29,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MCO. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in Moody’s by 14.1% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,733 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,263,000 after purchasing an additional 2,933 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,107 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $525,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Moody’s by 108.9% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $705,000 after buying an additional 774 shares during the period. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Moody’s by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cyndeo Wealth Partners LLC now owns 723 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in Moody’s by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 6,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,864,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Moody’s news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $474.86, for a total value of $133,435.66. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares in the company, valued at $29,390,984.84. This trade represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 843 shares of company stock valued at $405,455. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup started coverage on Moody’s in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $565.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Moody’s from $543.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Moody’s from $490.00 to $512.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Moody’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Moody’s presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $528.77.

Moody’s Stock Down 0.8 %

MCO opened at $518.66 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Moody’s Co. has a 12 month low of $360.05 and a 12 month high of $531.93. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $485.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $479.39. The company has a market cap of $93.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.31.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. Moody’s had a return on equity of 57.97% and a net margin of 29.05%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Moody’s Co. will post 12.39 EPS for the current year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. This is a boost from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Moody’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.36%.

About Moody’s

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets.